Easy Barbecued Pork Spare Ribs

This past week  I was looking through the freezer and noticed we had a few packages of pork spare ribs we needed to use up. I found a recipe on Pinterest that looked pretty easy and simple and I thought I would try it out. The final product was delicious and I'm excited to share this recipe with you!

The original recipe can be found at the Mmm is for Mommy blog, and she adapted it from the book America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution. This blogger did an excellent job of explaining all the steps and she also has a few other rib recipes I would like to try, such as her slow cooker honey garlic and ginger spare rib recipe and the 2-hour whiskey dijon BBQ ribs recipe.  If I get a chance to try these I'll be sure to let you know how they turned out.

For the Easy Barbecued Pork Spare Ribs recipe I used two packages of ribs, each package contained four sections of ribs. This amount could feed four adults easily. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can use any BBQ sauce you want and this allows you to cater to your family's specific tastes. For this recipe I used Famous Daves Sweet and Zesty sauce because it is what we had on hand.

Ingredients: 
3 Tbsp. of sweet paprika (I used normal paprika)
2 Tbsp. light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (I didn't have any cayenne pepper, so I skipped this ingredient)
Salt and pepper to taste (about 1 tsp. each)
6 pounds pork spare ribs- leave the membrane on the ribs to help hold them together.
3 Cups of the barbecue sauce of your choice
Vegetable oil spray

Directions:
In a small bowl, mix together paprika, brown sugar, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper. Rub this mixture all over both sides of your ribs. Arrange the ribs in the slow cooker by standing them up against the wall of the stoneware pot, thicker side down and meaty side against the pot. Pour the barbecue sauce over the ribs, cover and cook for 6-8 hours on low.

I was at work all day when I made this recipe and I was going to be away from home for 10 hours, so I turned the crock pot on warm for 5 hours then had Adam turn it to low when he stopped in to grab lunch that day.  The ribs cooked on low for an additional four hours.  This seemed to work fine, but if you around home while cooking the ribs I would recommend cooking them for 6 hours on low. When you cook them as long as I did in the crock pot the meat really shrinks down from the bone.

Mix all of the dry ingredients together to make the dry rub.

Rub the ribs with the dry ingredients.

Arrange the ribs in the crock pot by standing them up against the wall
of the crock pot, thicker side down and meaty side against the pot. 

Drizzle the three cups of BBQ sauce over the ribs. 

Once the ribs have cooked for this amount of time, there is one last step that makes the ribs taste fantastic.  For this step you will transfer the ribs from the crock pot to a broiler pan or a pyrex pan lined with foil with a baking cooling rack set on top of it. Be careful while doing this because the ribs are very tender and they will pull off of the bone easily. Place the ribs bone side up on the rack.  Set the broiler pan with the ribs to the side. Skim any fat that has risen to the top of the juice in the crock pot and strain all of the remaining juices from the crock pot through a mesh strainer into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer and then reduce the heat by a third.  Allow the sauce to simmer for approximately 15 minutes. Turn your oven to the broil setting and make sure there is an oven rack about 10 inches below the broiler element. When the broiler is preheated, brush the ribs with sauce and broil for 3 to 4 minutes. Take the ribs out and very carefully flip them over, brush with the sauce and broil again, meat side up for approximately 9 minutes, taking the ribs out once or twice to baste with more sauce. Serve any remaining sauce on the side with the ribs.

Place the ribs on a broiler pan. 

Strain the juice from the crock pot into a
saucepan by using a mesh strainer.

  

Bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce the heat
and let simmer for 15 minutes. 

Brush the ribs with the sauce and broil. 

There you have it! A fantastic lip-smacking summer recipe that will have your guests coming back for more!

Crock-Pot Honey Apple Cinnamon Pork Loin

Crock-Pot Honey Apple Cinnamon Pork Loin 

I found this recipe on Pinterest and I was shocked by how easy it was! The original recipe can be found here.

Prep: 20 Minutes  Cook: 7 hours

Ingredients:
Thawed Pork Loin, 2.5-3 pounds
3 sliced apples
Honey - Approximately 4 Tbsp.
Cinnamon- Approximately 2 Tbsp.

Directions: 

Slice the apples. 

Place the apple slices from two apples into the bottom of
the Crock-Pot.  Sprinkle them with cinnamon. 

Slice the pork loin into 1/2 to 3/4 inch sections.
(Use a different cutting board for the pork loin than
what was used for the apples to prevent food contamination). 

Drizzle honey into the slits. 

Place the apple slices in the slits and drizzle
the whole thing with honey. 

Put the loin in the Crock-Pot, cover with the remaining apples, and sprinkle the whole thing with cinnamon.  The recipe does not require the addition of water to the Crock-Pot.  I was a little apprehensive about this, but I went ahead and left it in there without adding water.  The loin, apples, and cinnamon do make a lot of juice and it never came close to drying out the Crock-Pot. 

Cook on low for seven hours or until the internal temperature
of the loin reads 145 degrees with a meat thermometer.

Almost done! It smells delicious!

The final product!

The inside of the loin after cutting a slice off. 

We had a friend of ours drop off a few zucchini from his garden, so I thought I would use it with the pork loin. I decided to try and bake it, and it turned out pretty good! First, you will want to preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Then slice up the zucchini. I tried to slice the zucchini into even slices, but as you can see that didn't work out too well. Next, I lined a baking pan with waxed paper, then I put a thin layer of olive oil on the baking sheet. I then put the zucchini on the baking pan and used a basting brush to coat each slice in olive oil. Next I sprinkled the slices with sea salt, ground pepper, rosemary, and sage. You can probably use any spice you want on this and it would be delicious.  Next I put it in the oven for 20 minutes, then served it with the pork loin and a biscuit. 

Mmmmm!

I was disappointed that I couldn't find any nutritional info for this recipe, if I can come up with it I will be sure to post it.

After trying the loin, Adam did make the comment that he thought it was a little dry.  When serving it up for him, I asked if wanted any of the juice poured over the pork loin on his plate and he declined that offer.  However, I did spoon the juice over the pork loin on my plate and I didn't think it was too dry.

When I do this recipe in the future I will marinate the loin overnight in a honey, apple, and cinnamon marinade to ensure the loin is not dry when it is done. Another option would be to poke holes in the top of the loin with a fork and spoon the juice from the bottom of the Crock-Pot over the loin every couple of hours.

Now, wasn't that just too simple?  Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions for improvement. Enjoy!